The Pineapple Express
In British Columbia the southerly warm wind that rips the snow off the hills is called “the Pineapple Express”. Here back in Scotland we call it “the hair dryer” and we are now experiencing our fifth day of strong winds and no snow sports; you can’t imagine how frustrating this is for staff and our skiing visitors. We lost a whole weekend of scheduled competitions and events with all the planning and logistics involved - disappointing for all of us. We did manage to get the train running, but winds were still too strong and remaining snow too icy to offer any skiing.
So far this season, from 20 December we have lost 16 days to wind and storms and on another 5 days we could only open the train! That’s a massive 30% of the time when we could not operate any snow lifts. Sounds crazy, but that’s the realty of Scottish skiing. It highlights that there is not only an inbuilt inefficiency in trying to operate a Scottish ski area, but providing a consistent customer experience is simply not possible. Those who arrived in the area on Thursday with the plan of skiing over the past few days would have had a totally negative experience; however a week before it would have been the exact opposite. To add to the complications of all this, there are days when the decision is not clear- cut or conditions change during operating hours, quite often not in ways which are forecast, and sometimes we have to turn visitors away in the morning only to be able to open later in the day.
Today started more promisingly with some fresh snow allowing us to ski off the train , but winds too high for anything else – sadly we had to pull the plug on this at 1330, beaten once again by the winds. More wind is forecast tomorrow!
The good news is we still have a base of snow in the gullies and over 2 kilometres of skiing from the top down to the bottom of the CAS via the traverse. March can be an excellent month for skiing in Scotland and it would be unprecedented not to get more snow from the infamous lambing storms as we move towards Easter.
One thing is for sure you have got to remain optimistic in this job.
Bob
February 25th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you.
Jason Rakowski
February 26th, 2008 at 9:40 am
Hi Bob,
I symphatise with your frustrations very much. The unstable weather conditions we experience these days makes it hard to guarantee ‘the right time of year’ for any activity.
Traditionally we would close down our rafting operations over winter but we have found over the last couple of years it has just about been worth while staying open because we have some of the best days in the year now in winter. With the intermittent mild spells we have had trips run in January with superb water levels offering a world class experience with air temperature as high as 14 degrees! Normally we would not expect this until late March or April if we were lucky. It has to be said the we still get cold days and while the rafting is near the coast and a good few degrees warmer than up on the Mountain we have to provide a good system of layering and reduce the chances of people swimming in the water to make sure they enjoy the day with us.
The driest month last year was April which was crazy as it is usually the best month for rafting on the River Findhorn, by the end of the month I was worried that there would not be enough water by June/July to get down the river, then we had the wettest summer on record! It makes it really hard to predict and you are right, you have to stay optimistic in this game that is for sure.
I would like to think that the visitors to the area are not too disappointed and put off by changeable Scottish weather, the sort of information that you provide to other local businesses and visitors via the newsletter and the blog are highly commendable. It is precisely this information that helps people make what will hopefully be the right choice so they do have a great time when they are here. Keep up the excellent work.
It is well worth coming up to the highlands, there is such an array of things to do and see and you never know you might be lucky and have a truly world class experience be it on the Mountain, River, Forest or even in a Cafe!
February 29th, 2008 at 10:46 am
I’d agree with the previous comment that a great experience is always possible in the Highlands - even when the weather refuses to co-operate.
We were up on the mountain earlier this week and although the skiing had been stopped due to the wind, it was still the most incredible atmosphere.
The Cas Bar was packed and really buzzing and the experience of being enveloped in snow and thrown across the carpark was absolutely brilliant!
If we’d had time for fish and chips in Aviemore before heading back to Inverness it would have been a perfect excursion